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AI art generators have come a long way in the last two years. What started as a way to be creative has now turned into a full-blown image industry. Nearly everyone has been taking advantage of the best AI art generators including:
How Does An AI Art Generator Work?
Easy. You give it a prompt like I want “a kitten on a bench overlooking the ocean,” and the AI art generator will create the image for you.
Here’s a photo of me casually working from my computer in the French Riviera (I wish!).
So, I’ve spent hours and hours testing each platform out myself. To make the judging fair, I came up with three different prompts that I used for inputs. I used the same for every platform; that way, each output spoke for itself. As you’ll see as you work through the reviews, some do better with certain types of art than others.
What Is the Best AI Art Generator?
Let the games begin! Let’s see how these photos turned out using each AI art generator.
1. Midjourney
Best Photos Overall
Midjourney is an AI art generator made for the new generation. It’s held largely in the Discord community, so if you’re unfamiliar with the platform, then you may have a little bit of a learning curve to utilize this software. But the photos are phenomenal; they are one of the best I have experimented with.
Since Midjourney can be so difficult to use, there are tons of YouTube videos and tutorials on how to get the images you’re after. If you’re not looking to become a prompt expert, you can find plenty of free and paid prompts for the types of photos you need.
Check out what the discord dashboard looks like:
Midjourney’s AI Image Examples
I took it for a test drive and found some astounding, high quality generated photos. The detail in each of the images looks like they were created by an actual human artist. If you put a human and AI image from Midjourney side by side, I’m pretty sure you would have difficulty determining which one is “real.”
As you can tell, it nails many various types of art styles, from realistic photography photos to food marketing content.
Midjourney’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Midjourney Pricing:
Midjouney has an option to trial it for free, but the basic plans are cheap enough for what you get. If you’re looking for commercial rights, it depends on the money your company makes to determine which plan you should choose.
Take Home
Midjourney, in my opinion, is hands-down one of the best. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of how difficult it is to use, so be ready for a learning curve. But you’ll get the highest caliber of any photo you need with their platform.
2. DALLE-3
Best for High-Quality
The DALL-E AI image generator has become infamous of sorts, thanks to being used in an article by the Atlantic. Although this poor journalist received the wrath of the online community, he was just simply one of the first to trial an AI image generator to obtain something original.
But AI art generators (and DALL-E) have had some upgrades in the last year. OpenAI (yes, the one that developed ChatGPT) is now offering DALLE-3 access to all pro subscribers. As someone who has tested DALLE-2, I’m pleased to say that the third version does not disappoint.
How it works is you simply open up your paid ChatGPT dashboard and ask it to create some images for you. Here’s an idea of what my dashboard looked like:
DALL-E 3 AI Art Image Generator Experience
Here are the three photos it created for me using our previous prompts.
DALLE-3 Pricing:
Only available to plus-subscribers at this time. But it’s only $20 a month and you get ChatGPT-4 with that.
DALLE-3 Verdict
I had high hopes for DALL-E 3 and it did not disappoint. I often toggle back and forth between DALLE and Midjourney to meet the super high photo quality needs I’m after, as I find the platform of DALLE much easier to navigate.
3. Canva
For Canva Users or Social Media Marketing Managers
Canva is a super popular photo and design center where you can create pretty much anything. It’s often most used for any type of creative asset you need, from Instagram Posts, banners, advertising ads, to videos and presentation features.
They’ve also upgraded their platform to include AI image generators, so let’s see how these test out.
Here’s a look at their text-to-image generator dashboard:
All you have to do is enter a detailed description of what you’re looking for.
Canva Image Generator Experience
Here are the three photos it created for me using our previous prompts.
Canva Pricing:
This is included with their normal packages.
Canva Verdict
Most small businesses or content creators already use Canva for one reason or another, so if you need the occasional marketing photo, their image generator does a great job. It’s not as customizable and creative as like Midjourney or DALLE, but it gets the job done that you need.
4. Jasper.AI Art Generator
Best for AI Writers & Content Marketers
Jasper is an AI art generator that’s been in the works for a while. For those of you who are new to Jasper, the company is a very popular AI writing program that you can use for your marketing team (think articles, social media posts, etc). You can see my full Jasper AI review here.
They have released an AI art generator within their platform to help marketers create custom photos for their marketing efforts. It’s much more user-friendly but not as customizable. Let’s test out our prompts.
Jasper’s Artwork
Jasper’s program works a little bit differently, in that you have a few dropdowns to choose from, as shown above. When I entered our three prompts, here’s what came out:
As you can see, very different artworks from Midjourney & DALLE3. While the Venice honeymoon photo turned out alright, the rest were not as impressive as I would want them to be.
Unique Features to Jasper.ai Art:
The biggest difference is that you have a ton of dropdowns to help you better achieve the art piece that you’re looking for. Here are your dropdown boxes with some examples, but keep in mind these are all optional choices. You don’t have to use anything if you don’t want to.
Jasper Pricing:
You have to pay for the Pro version at $59 per month to gain access to the art generator. If you’re just looking for art, this is pretty expensive, but for everything else that you get, it becomes quite affordable.
Jasper Verdict
They had a lot of great photos that you could easily generate and I loved the dropdown menus to give you ideas of what you’re looking for. I would say the photos are hit and miss as some photos I tried didn’t turn out at all and expect the platform to improve over time. But for some quick marketing needs, it works in a pinch.
5. Night Cafe
Most User-Friendly AI Art Generator
Night Cafe is another platform that has been around the image generation block once or twice. However, I would say they’re more for fantasy artwork or creative works. I haven’t seen it do amazing things when it comes to marketing needs or PPC ads.
The Artwork
Let’s look at those three prompts again and see what Night Cafe does with them:
As you can see above, I think Night Cafe did the best with the fairy queen, but the other two look AI-generated. They’re not nearly as realistic as the other AI art generators we tested out.
Other Night Cafe Features
They have a discord community as well, which makes it fun to post and share your favorite works of art. You can also “evolve an image,” which is great if you want to get into more details.
Per their website, they are also now offering “commercial use” on their images. But there’s some ambiguity with current copyright laws so do your research.
Also, when you go to create an image there are a few options you get when you go to create an image:
NightCafe Pricing:
They price it a bit differently than others and are on a “credit” system. You can purchase a monthly subscription, which gives you access to x amount of credits per month. The nice thing is they allow five free credits per day, so you can try it out first. Also, you can earn free credits through different promotions like participation within the Discord Community.
NightCafe Verdict
Night Cafe I would say works okay. It’s better for more fantastical or magical pictures, but with the credit system and other options available, not quite sure where this one fits in.
5. Dream by Wombo.art
Easy Mobile App
Dream by Wombo. Art is more for mobile apps than for creating fantastic, custom images. They offer a free version, which allows you to create basic images from text.
For me, their AI art generator is for those who need quick images from their phone that don’t need to be super impressive. Check out their images to see why.
The Dream Artwork
As you can tell, all three of the images fell flat and didn’t give me exactly what I asked for. I’m missing the plate of pasta, the couple in Venice, and the fairy, which aren’t very impressive either.
Features You Get From Wombo.art
Dream Pricing:
Free to use, but they have a premium available for better quality photos and variations.
Dream by Wombo Verdict
Wombo.art created some wonderful fantasy images and is perfect for those that are using an AI art generator for NFTs thanks to their direct connection. It doesn’t seem to be the best option for images of people.
6. DreamStudio.AI
AI Image Photo Editor
DreamStudio (not to be confused with Dream by Wombo) takes a much more different approach when it comes to generating AI images. It actually is an AI image generator and a photo editor all in one. That’s because it’s backed by Stability AI, a powerful AI photo generator in the market.
Take a look at the dashboard experience, and you’ll understand how it acts more like Photoshop than the other platforms I’ve reviewed:
The DreamStudio Artwork
Overall, I was really happy with the photo quality that came by their program. Here’s the three prompts and how it compares to the rest.
DreamStudio Features
I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the unique features DreamStudio has to offer, as its editing tools are much different from their competitors.
Dream Pricing:
They give you credits to start off with on a free trial after signing up with your email address. You are given credits, but then you pay per image (pricing unclear). There is no monthly subscription option.
DreamStudio Verdict
I love the photo editor that allows you to make edits with DreamStudio. The photos are pretty good (not as great as DALLE or Midjourney), but still very good quality.
7. Starry AI
Mobile App Generator
Starry AI is another mobile-forward program that helps smartphone users create AI art within the palm of their hands.
I really love how they offer ways to make different styles. You can choose to create a realistic photograph, art, illustrations, or different styles.
The Starry AI Artwork
Here are the two photos I was able to use with my free credits. If you want more photos, you have to upgrade your plan (pricing below).
Starry AI Pricing:
Here is the pricing breakdown for Starry AI:
Starry AI Verdict
For a more basic app-based AI art generator, I thought Starry AI did a great job with their photos. For those needing photos for social media, personal use, or even
What is an AI Art Generator?
If you’re new to AI art generators, then the good news is that it’s not very complicated at all! The way they work is that you enter in some sort of prompt or saying. For instance, this could be “a row boat on the ocean at sunset” and the artificial intelligence art generator will create a work of art for you in minutes.
They can be used for anything, from marketing and digital material, to AI logos and AI headshots.
From all the platforms I’ve played with, the majority of them offer up to 4 variations of your prompt. You can then choose which one was more in line with what you were looking for, and then enhance or evolve that photograph.
Now that you’ve got the basics down, there are a few things that are worth discussing.
How Does Artificial Intelligence Create AI Generated Art?
Without getting too “techy”, in essence, the machine has been trained to understand aesthetics, objects, figures, etc by analyzing thousands and thousands of images throughout the web. This is accomplished through what engineers call “neural networks”. That’s often called the “visual” side of deep learning as it takes a lot of complicated technology for artificial intelligence to understand or process an image.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Type of AI Art Styles Can You Generate with AI?
After spending hours playing on many different platforms myself, there are so many different types of art you can create with artificial intelligence. Typically, it depends on the platform you choose and the prompts you enter.
For instance, some unique AI art generators will allow you to choose a type of medium (like canvas, oil painting, pixel art, abstract art) or give you keywords to choose from to get what you’re looking for. Even on platforms that don’t, all you need to do is make it part of the prompt. So instead of saying “gondola in the Venice canal” you can write “gondola in the Venice canal with gold ratio, impressionist style”.
Some even turn out some high-quality, realistic images where you can’t tell if they were done by bot or human.
What Impact Will AI Art Generation Have on Creatives?
Now there is a LOT of controversy surrounding this new technology. Rightfully so, creatives such as artists, graphic designers, and painters are worried about what this type of technology will have on their businesses. After all, if someone can create AI generated art that’s personal and completed in less than a minute for mere cents, what does their future business model look like?
And that’s just the start of what to think about. There are tons of considerations to think about with this new technology such as:
- What are the legalities surrounding AI art?
- How will search engines respond to the use of AI art?
- Are there any copyright concerns as AI utilizes the web to understand images?
While these are all valid concerns that will likely take years to sort through, no one can be certain about what the future holds. My recommendation to creatives who have a long career ahead of them is to adapt your business model to succeed in the future.
Are There Any AI Art Communities?
There are a lot of AI art communities within Discord with Midjourney and Night Cafe.
If you’re not on Discord, Jasper.ai has a great Facebook community where many people are sharing their products.
Are There Any Free AI Art Generators?
There are actually a few AI art generators that you can try out for free. Midjourney allows a few prompts per month, but keep in mind your original images cannot be used commercially. Wombo.art is another great platform with mobile capability that offers a free AI powered software.
